


Zdunich Gets Sunken

by Krembearry



Series: My Clan Lore [2]
Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Drowning, Gen, hatchlings are killed so like watch out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 19:35:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4637613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krembearry/pseuds/Krembearry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She never much cared for water, but she wasn't scared of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zdunich Gets Sunken

Zdunich wasn't sure why she was drawn to the riverside. She never much cared for water, but she wasn't scared of it. She stared into it's quick shallows and dipped her tail in. It was much deeper than it appeared to be. Almost her entire tail was soaked before she hit the bottom. Ruffling her feathers, she knew something was wrong here.

Sharp pink eyes caught a flash of movement and it was enough to justify her purpose. Zdunich drew the vines from around her shoulders and shot them into the water, latching onto whatever had been struggling, and pulling it to the surface. As soon as it broke the water, Zdunich wondered what Maiha was doing. She could almost smell the Wildclaw.

A glance down at the object in her claws showed her she _was_ smelling Wildclaw.

She almost dropped the hatchling in horror, but it cried softly and she knew he was alive, but just barely. Zdunich flared her wings and took off to the lair, forgoing her mound to find QuickFlight. The feathers on her chest weren't terribly useful for warming others, not nearly as nice as a Coatl, but it was the best she could do.

Alighting on the ground, Zdunich raced through the tunnels and right in to QuickFlight's path. No doubt, the medicine dragon was surprised to see her. Zdunich never came into the lair. One glance at the half-drowned hatchling was all the Guardian needed. He was carted away, swaddled in QuickFlight's leather vest, and Zdunich found that once he was no longer her responsibility, she was still worried. That hadn't happened before.

While he was being cared for, she had business to do. Much calmer than when she came in, Zdunich walked out of the lair. The garden wasn't too far away, and she looked at the Wildclaw that was talking to Honey and Sehn. Zdunich walked up to the group and her presence called attention more than anything else.

"Maiha."

The Wildclaw's head snapped up to look at the Skydancer. One look at the dripping mortician sent Maiha into a horrible tremor. "Three eggs is three hatchlings, Maiha. I found one in the river. Where ever could your other two be?" Zdunich's disgust was not hidden. Her tone was openly venemous. Maiha, or anyone else in the clan, had never heard anything like it.

"I d-don't know what you're talking about, Dunny. My hatchlings are just f-"

Zdunich surges forward and, despite the obvious difference in their sizes, she snarls the Wildclaw down against the grass.

"They are _not_ 'just fine.' And _I_ am _not_ your Dunny." A few dragons could sense the altercation and peeped their heads up from the den. To see it was Zdunich and Maiha disintegrated all their concern and it turned to amusement as they watched. Soon the two she-dragons were yelling, arguing over Maiha's hatchlings that she insisted were fine. QuickFlight walked up to the two of them. Immediately, Zdunich backed away, sitting and letting her feathers calm. The spirits were swirling around her wings and looking as angry as she felt. QuickFlight gently sets down two small bodies, both Coatls. Both of them look too much like Lacus for Maiha to deny anything.

"The Wildclaw child was holding these two. How long were these hatchlings born before they were dropped beneath the water, Maiha? Does this bring you joy?" The Guardian's voice solidified the evilness of the crime. The Wildclaw looked away. As soon as the crimes were clear, Pala stepped forward, his massive form shaking the ground. Maiha's silence told them all what was wrong. Only a moment more and he snatched her up in one of his hands.

"Are you guilty of these crimes?"

The quiet 'yes' sent gasps through the crowd. Pala snatched off to his left and pulled up a Coatl who looked much more panicked than Maiha.

"And you, Lacus? Were you privy to these drownings?"

After an intense stare and pleading glance from Pala and Maiha respectively, the Coatl nodded. Glisahlys was away at the moment. Lacus knew his father would not be proud.

"I am exiling you from our clan. As we no longer wish to accept you, we will not kill you either. However, Bloodbranch and Sunsplatter are rather protective of our grounds, and I cannot say they will like trespassers." He drops them both. A strong gust had blown right as he did so, letting them immediately take to flying away. A Skydancer and Mirror took off after them, one on foot and the other in the sky, chasing off the murderers. After a short while, the clan dispersed.

Zdunich looked at the two small Coatls at her feet. They couldn't have been hours old before being dropped into the river. She lifts them both, cradles them to her chest. Tears drip down her face as she flies back to her mound. She scoops out one grave and lays them next to each other, bright blue and orange curled around deep red and tan. She quietly names them for their colors, Cyantrigger and Bloodysand. She knows they aren't good names, she's never been good at naming hatchlings, but it's better than no name at all. She wishes they could have heard their names.

Once they're buried, a seafoam figure peeks over the edge of her mound. Zdunich raises her head and stares at Quickflight with glassy eyes. The Guardian looks pained to do so, but she slinks closer and offers a bundle to Zdunich.

"He survived, but just barely. There isn't anything I can do for him that you can't. I know you've never raised a hatchling, but I don't think there's anyone else who would want a child that came from Maiha. No one will mind him living, but no one will raise him either. I'll be there if you need help." Zdunich pulls back the blanket to see the face of the Wildclaw. His wings and crest, which had been orange when she plucked him out of the water, now were broken and blue, cracked like ancient stone. She gently touched one with the back of her hand and saw it was all looks. His wings were fine and sturdy. Another tear rolls down Zdunich's face when the Wildclaw takes a loud, shaky breath.

"Do you have a name for him? I will tell the clan what has happened."

A moment's hesitation, thinking hard about what she could call this little one. He wriggled in her arms and a name popped into her head, whispered by tiny, cooing voices.

"I will call him Sunken." A nod, and the Guardian was gone. Zdunich was left alone to deal with the ache and grief seeing two killed hatchlings and holding a half-killed one in her hands.

Despite what everyone called her, she was not heartless, or emotionless, or insensitive.

Years of building graves and hosting the dead in her body did not change who she was.

Death hurt. Every single time. Zdunich knew it was just her job to take care of things, and now, for the first time, she would take care of life. Another small coo and the Skydancer stood to find something for her new child, her Sunken, to eat.


End file.
